I really thought that this was common news and that we were ranked number one last year as well. The Post-Gazette released their article on the research found that the city of Pittsburgh has the worst bridges in the United States. Really though, when you’re considered the city of bridges, wouldn’t you think that we have the best chance at having the most deficient bridges, as well as best chance at having the best bridges?
“There are more deficient bridges in our metropolitan areas than there are McDonald’s restaurants in the entire country,” said James Corless, the organization’s director. “These metropolitan-area bridges are most costly and difficult to fix, but they also are the most urgent, because they carry such a large share of the nation’s people and goods.”
That quote alone is stunning, because there are a ton of McDonald’s everywhere. I don’t know, I seriously thought it was already common knowledge that we’d have the worst bridges around. Call me crazy, but I do remember a report back when that one bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, and I just swear they had a report saying that there were a ton of bridges in Pittsburgh that were sub-par to deficient.
“The dangerous state of our bridges is a problem that is not going away. Most of the nation’s bridges were designed to last 50 years, and today, roughly a third are already 50 years or older, and the average age of bridges nationally is 42 years,” Mr. Corless said.
Really though, who didn’t see this kind of situation coming? Nothing ever lasts forever, and why were these vital life lines ignored? It’s almost a shock, especially here, that we’re considered the city of bridges.
Quotes from this article: http://post-gazette.com/pg/11292/1183104-147.stm#ixzz1bEEiCnyV
Wed, Oct 19, 2011
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